


So What Comes After?

by Velocity_Owl87



Series: Percival/EggsyAU [1]
Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: Aftermath, Angst and Feels, Coping, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hopeful Ending, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Introspection, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-08
Updated: 2016-02-08
Packaged: 2018-05-18 23:40:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5947672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Velocity_Owl87/pseuds/Velocity_Owl87
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Valentine's plans have been thwarted and Eggsy should be on top of the world. Except that Harry's not there to share the triumph and Eggsy feels like he's got a hole in his chest and nothing will fix it again. </p><p>Yet, his grief heals, helped along by a sympathetic Percival who Eggsy grows to see as something more than just a friend in a time of need.</p>
            </blockquote>





	So What Comes After?

_ “I’ve won, despite everything. So why do I feel so empty?” _

This was the first thing that Eggsy asked himself the moment that he had gotten his suit back on and he was on the way back to the plane where Merlin was waiting patiently, rather than leaving him there. 

He accepted the glass of whiskey that Merlin offered him politely and even took a sip of it, wincing at the strong taste after the sweet lightness of the champagne that he had drunk with Princess Tilde before he claimed his reward. A reward that was looking pretty cheap now that he was in the plane and listening to Merlin rattle off all the fires that needed to be put out now that Valentine’s schemes had been stopped. 

It should have been a triumph, especially considering that he had fucked a princess despite being from a shite estate of South London. Yet once it had happened, it just again turned into ashes. 

He decided to stop thinking about it and instead drank the whiskey, grimacing at the burn and listened to what Merlin had to say to him. 

He’d much rather have something to do than dwell on why it had all turned to shit the moment that the adrenaline had worn off. 

~*~*~*~

He must have slept at some point, he realized. Merlin wasn’t in the back of the jet any longer and the only other agent there was the one they had picked up just outside of Paris. He looked at… _ ”Percival” _ his mind supplied as he sat up and scrubbed the sleep out of his eyes. 

Percival only smiled at him, a small curl of his thin lips, but it was still there. 

“You all right there, Unwin?”

Eggsy blinked bloodshot eyes and squinted at who had spoken to him. It was Percival, Roxy’s cousin or something like that. He was younger than Eggsy had expected and he had a nice smile. Warm and sympathetic and it didn’t make Eggsy want to retreat in numb silence or punch him in the face. He was interested in knowing how he was feeling and not just because of the retrieval mission that they were undertaking together. 

Eggsy chewed on his lip, wincing at the dryness of it before he finally gave what he felt was a good answer that said everything and not much at the same time. 

“As alright as anyone can be after all that.”

Percival raised an eyebrow at that. 

“I didn’t ask for the Merlin answer. Truly, Unwin, are you all right?”

Eggsy didn’t reply verbally and only shook his head. 

Percival sighed and patted his shoulder. 

“I know that it’s cold comfort now...But it gets easier. Your chest won’t feel like it’s been kicked in and it’ll stop hurting when you breathe. You’ll stop feeling like everything has turned to ash. You’ll always miss him, but you won’t feel like closing your eyes and going back to sleep while trying to forget he’s not there anymore.”

Eggsy’s throat worked hard as he tried to swallow and not make an ass of himself in front of this slightly battered and slightly singed agent with kind grey-green eyes. 

“Not many of us have had to lose our mentors right from the start and you’re strong lad, for carrying on despite everything. No one will think less of you in your grief. I certainly won’t”

He did get a bit choked up and he nodded, furiously dashing away the tears that collected at the corners of his stinging eyes. The cursed thing was that they didn’t stop coming and the faster that he wiped them away, the faster they collected. 

Percival didn’t say anything, just kept his hand on Eggsy’s shoulder until he had gotten his silent grieving out of his system. 

Once Eggsy was sure that he wasn’t going to cry anymore, Percival handed him a handkerchief and patted his shoulder one last time.

Eggsy gratefully took it and wiped his face clean and wiped his nose with it, putting it in pocket and making a mental note to have it laundered before he handed it back to Percival. 

“Thank you.” 

Percival smiled again, this time his eyebrow curved up as he did. 

It somehow made the emptiness ease a fraction. At least to the point where it felt like it wasn’t going to suffocate him completely in the next twelve hours. 

“You’re welcome.” 

~*~*~*~

By rights, Harry’s house is now his. Merlin explained the complicated legalities about the situation and he got the gist of it, but couldn’t pretend that he understood what exactly happened so that he was entitled to it. He was still stunned about gaining ownership of it when he, Roxy, and Percival entered the house when he was given the keys. He hadn’t even as so much  _ dreamed _ of owning a flat, never mind a house in a posh part of London. 

He had done his homework and knew  _ exactly _ how much that house was worth. It felt like too much and he had wanted to argue it, but Percival and Roxy had both grabbed his elbows and muttered for him to just accept it. He had been angry, the spark bursting out unexpectedly at their insistence and then dying out once he and Roxy explained that it would be sold off to foreign investment and torn down. 

Maybe it was a bit of a dirty ploy, but it worked. He had agreed to take ownership and he had to marshall up enough courage to go to the house and was grateful that Percival and Roxy took pity on him and dragged him over there when they felt it was time. 

He thought he could handle it, coming across the threshold and seeing it looking exactly like it had that afternoon before Harry had left for Kentucky. He looked up at the stairs and for a split second, he had expected to see Harry descending the stairs and smiling at him. 

Of course, it didn’t happen. 

He took a ragged breath that made Roxy and Percival look at him and direct him to the kitchen. Roxy murmured something soothing in his ear before Percival shoved a glass of whiskey into his hand ordered him to drink it. He got it to his mouth and drained it, not noticing the burn that it left in his mouth and throat. It made him cough and his eyes water, but it gave him the kick he needed to get his head back in the game. 

He was grateful when neither Roxy or Percival said anything about it. He did notice that they stuck close to him and didn’t let him linger on anything that may trigger him again. 

Eggsy found that he was quite grateful for that and the fact that they let him pick and choose what he wanted to keep and what would be sent off to Harry’s family as mementoes of his life. 

He didn’t go into Harry’s office that day. 

~*~*~*~*

It’s a week later that he finally got enough courage (and not the Dutch kind) to enter Harry’s office and look at all the frames, the set up and the laptop still on the desk. Just like how Eggsy had left it the last time that he had been in that room. He walked over to it and flipped it open. 

He turned it on and was surprised to see that it was his information that it asked for, rather than Harry’s. He turned to Percival, who gave him a sad smile.

“When every agent dies, his information gets wiped off by Merlin. We know too much. We can’t risk it being out there where someone can use it against us. It’s stored in an encrypted place. But for all intents and purposes, this is your laptop until further notice.”

Eggsy scoffed at the delicate way that Percival put it. “Until I die, you mean.”

Percival’s light grey-green eyes crinkle and his nose scrunches up when he laughs. It’s not a quiet, polite laugh. It’s loud in the small space and the unexpectedness of it makes Eggsy himself laugh. 

They don’t stop and even after they were sitting at the kitchen island drinking tea, they still were giggling and Eggsy realized that in the last couple of weeks, this was the first time that he had actually laughed without feeling a twinge of sorrow behind it. It was just like Percival had told him on the plane ride home. 

He took a drink of his tea and slid a thoughtful side glance at Percival. 

Eggsy decided to file it away for further examination later on.

~*~*~*~*~

He found the house was a bit too big, but he didn’t dare ask his mother to move in. As much as he loved her, he knew that she simply couldn’t change into the mother she should have been for him. He knew too, that with his frequent missions, Dean Baker would be ensconced in the house in no time. He loved Michelle and did give her stuff for Daisy and even helped pay for a good daycare so that his mum could actually take steps to being independent, but he didn’t trust her.

So the house remained half filled with Harry’s stuff until he started to mark it with his own method of collections. Which took the form of small paintings by local artists wherever he went. It was on a whim that he started to collect the postcard sized paintings. He had nothing to do in Kyrgyzstan when he was waiting to get the details on the arms dealer he was supposed to neutralize. He had been wandering around in a bazaar and had seen the paintings of the steppes. Maybe if they had been bigger he wouldn’t have bothered. But they were the perfect size to shove into a pocket. 

So he bought two of them, the impulse being that he could give one to Daisy when he visited. 

It should have made it to Daisy. 

Yet when he was in his office, typing up the report, Percival came by after being patched up after completing  _ his _ mission (he had been getting his arm set after an unexpected fight in Jakarta had him running away from a bomb and breaking his arm in three places) and had been so taken by the picture that Eggsy had given it to him without a second thought. 

As he witnessed Percival’s simple pleasure at the painting, Eggsy realized that he enjoyed seeing that close-lipped smile on Percival’s face. The one that made his eyes light up like clear glass and made Eggsy’s chest hurt in a way he hadn’t felt in almost a year. 

It wasn’t until the fourth picture that he handed over that none of them had ever made it to Daisy and that the office had one wall without framed newspapers on it. 

It had been such a casual and gradual thing that he didn’t stop to think about it. One day the newspapers were there. The next, it was his steadily growing collection of paintings. 

It was also around the same time that he realized that he didn’t know Percival’s real name even after all the time that they had spent together.

Nor had he asked for it. 

He needed to fix that.

~*~*~*~*~

It wasn’t a planned deal, when they end up going out for drinks in Seville. They usually didn’t need to work tandem, but it was a large scale dealing operation that they needed to shut down and they were ideal for it. Roxy was a better honeypot, so she had gotten stuck in New York. So It was Percival and Eggsy that had gotten the mission. 

It had taken them just a few week’s compared to the scheduled month and no missions were forthcoming. So they decided to live it up and take in the sights. Something that they didn’t get to do much of. 

So it made sense that one night, Percival suggested going out for drinks and a taste of the Sevillian nightlife. Eggsy didn’t see anything wrong with that, so he eagerly followed along, marvelling at the taste of the dark red wine, the food and the closeness of Percival beside him. 

He didn’t dwell on that though, at least not until Percival’s hand brushed against his when they both reached for the wine. 

Eggsy’s cheeks burned at the touch and he made a small noise at that knowledge. 

He hadn’t had that genuine of a reaction to anyone (honeypots didn’t count) in years and he was stunned as all out when Percival finally brought it out of him.’

“Galahad?”

Eggsy swallowed hard and looked closely at Percival, taking in the square jaw, the reddened lips and the wide-open eyes under that neatly combed back brown hair. 

“If I said I finally noticed you, and what you have done for me and then kissed you, would you punch me after?”

Percival’s response was to swoop in and kiss him forcefully, his mouth tasting of the wine and of desire finally fulfilled. His lips were soft and he kissed like he could barely control all the want that he hadn’t ever shown Eggsy until that moment. 

They kissed until Eggsy had to pull back to breathe, making Percival grin. 

“Does that answer your question, Galahad?”

“Eggsy. My name. Eggsy Unwin.”

Percival’s grin widened.

“Iwan is mine.”

END.

**Author's Note:**

> This was both an exorcism of a grief in my own life and also a way to get through writer's block caused by that grieving. 
> 
> Eggsy's grief in this is both of the person Harry was and of the possibilities that he could have had with Harry. Not in the sexual sense persay, but in getting to know him more and working with him, since he was the father figure that was lacking in his life. 
> 
> I know that grief is a strange thing, coming and going, but I wanted for Eggsy to be able to step out of that with the help of Percival just being kind to him at first, then having a friendship before it ended up being a romance. This is the main reason why Eggsy doesn't ask for his name until the end, since it wasn't until then he realized the changed nature of their relationship.
> 
> Proofed and edited, but if mistakes remain, they will be fixed at a later time.
> 
> Also, we don't get a name for Percival and I had Iwan Rheon (Think later seasons of Misfits and Vicious rather than GoT) in mind as Percival, so that's why his first name ends up being Iwan.


End file.
